×

We use cookies to help make LingQ better. By visiting the site, you agree to our cookie policy.

image

BBC - 6 Minute English (YouTube), Will humans become extinct? 6 Minute English - YouTube

Will humans become extinct? 6 Minute English - YouTube

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning

English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

In this programme, we'll be looking

at some of the many dangers facing

humanity, from climate change and global

pandemics to asteroid impacts and

nuclear war. We'll be finding out whether

human civilisation can survive these risks

and looking at some of the related

vocabulary as well.

Do you really think humans could become

extinct and end up as dead as the dodo?

Ah, so of course you've heard of the dodo?

Yes, dodos were large, metre-high birds which

died out in the 1600s after being hunted

to extinction by humans.

That's right. Dodos couldn't fly and weren't

very clever. They didn't hide when sailors

with hunting dogs landed on their island.

The species was hunted so much that

within a century, every single bird had

died out.

But do you know which island the dodo

was from, Sam? That's my quiz question

for today. Was it:

a) The Galapagos, b) Mauritius or c) Fiji?

I'll guess the Galapagos, Neil, because

I know many exotic animals live there. By

the way, that's also cheered me up a bit

because as humans we are much smarter

than the dodo! We're far too clever to die

out, aren't we?

I'm not sure I agree, Sam. Lots of the

existential risks - the worst possible

things that could happen to humanity,

such as nuclear war, global

pandemics or rogue artificial intelligence,

are human-made. These threats could

have catastrophic consequences for

human survival in the 21st century.

That's true. But existential risks don't

only threaten the survival of the human

species. Instead, they could destroy civilisation

as we know it, leaving pockets of

survivors to struggle on in a post-apocalyptic world.

And it wouldn't be the first time that has

happened, as the BBC World Service

programme The Inquiry found out.

Simon Beard of the Centre for the Study

of Existential Risk at Cambridge

University explains:

The historical record suggests that about

once every thousand years an event

occurs that wipes out about a third of the

human population – so in the Middle

Ages, this was the Black Death - huge

plague that covered Eurasia, while there

was also dramatic global cooling at that

time which many people think

was related to volcanic eruptions and

about a third of the global population died.

So, humanity has been facing these risks

throughout history, according to the

historical record – the collection of all

written and recorded past events

concerning the human race.

Yes. Wars and plagues – infectious,

epidemic diseases which spread between

countries can quickly wipe out – or

completely destroy, millions of people.

And there's not much we can do to stop

disasters like that!

True, Sam, but what about individuals

who actively work to bring about the end

of the world - like apocalyptic terrorists,

rampage shooters and fundamentalist

cults like those who organised the

poisonous gas attack on the Tokyo subway.

Those are people who want to end human

life on Earth and bring about Doomsday -

another word for the final, apocalyptic day

of the world's existence.

Right. And things got even scarier in

modern times with the invention of

nuclear weapons. During the Cuban

Missile Crisis between America

and the USSR for example, risk experts

estimated a 41% probability that human

life would be completely wiped out!

Seth Baum of New York's Global

Catastrophic Risk Institute explains

how human error almost brought about Doomsday:

There are some ways that you could get

to a nuclear war without really intending to,

and probably the biggest example is if you

have a false alarm that is mistaken as a

nuclear attack, and there have been a

number of, maybe even very serious false

alarms, over the years, in which one side

or the other genuinely believed

that they were under nuclear attack, when

in fact they were not at all under nuclear

attack.

One such false alarm - an incorrect

warning given so that people wrongly

believe something dangerous is about to

happen, came about in

1995, when the US sent missiles up into

the Earth's atmosphere to study the

Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights.

Soviet radars picked up the missiles, thinking

they were nuclear warheads and almost

retaliated. Nuclear Armageddon was only

averted by the actions of one clear-thinking

Russian general who decided not to push

the red button.

Phew! A close shave then! Well, Neil, all

this doomongering has made me want to

just give it all up and live on a desert island!

Like the dodo eh, Sam? So, which island

would that be? If you remember, today's

quiz question asked where the dodo was

from.

I said The Galapagos.

And I'm afraid to say it was b) Mauritius.

So, to recap, in this programme we've

been discussing Doomsday – the final

day of life on Earth and other existential

threats - dangers threatening the survival

of humans on the planet.

We looked back throughout the historical

record - all recorded human history, to see

examples of threats which have wiped

out, or killed millions of people in the past,

including wars and plagues which spread

epidemic diseases between populations.

And we've seen how modern dangers, like

nuclear war and climate change, further

reduce the probability of human survival.

But Sam, it's not all doom and gloom! The

same scientific intelligence which spilt

the atom could also find solutions to our

human-made problems in the 21st century,

don't you think?

So, the end of the world might be a false

alarm – or unfounded warning – after all!

Let's hope we'll all still be here next

time for another edition of 6 Minute English.

Bye for now!

Bye.

Learn languages from TV shows, movies, news, articles and more! Try LingQ for FREE

Will humans become extinct? 6 Minute English - YouTube |||aussterben||| |||extinct||| verbo auxiliar|||estinti||| Vyhynou lidé? 6 minut angličtiny - YouTube Wird der Mensch aussterben? 6 Minuten Englisch - YouTube 人類は絶滅するのか?6分間英語 - YouTube 인간은 멸종할까요? 6분 영어 - YouTube Czy ludzie wyginą? 6 minut po angielsku - YouTube Вымрут ли люди? 6 Minute English - YouTube İnsanların soyu tükenecek mi? 6 Minute English - YouTube 人类会灭绝吗? 6 分钟英语 - YouTube 人類會滅絕嗎? 6 分鐘英語 - YouTube

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning

English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

In this programme, we'll be looking

at some of the many dangers facing |||||dangers| na některá z mnoha nebezpečí, kterým čelí

humanity, from climate change and global lidstva, od změny klimatu a globální

pandemics to asteroid impacts and |||تأثیرات| Pandemien||Asteroideneinschlägen|| le pandemie||asteroid|| pandemie, dopady asteroidů a

nuclear war. We'll be finding out whether جنگ هسته‌ای||خواهیم||پی بردن|| nucleare|||||| jaderná válka. Zjistíme, zda

human civilisation can survive these risks |تمدن بشری|||| |Zivilisation|||| |la civiltà||||

and looking at some of the related |و نگاه کردن به|||||مرتبط با

vocabulary as well.

Do you really think humans could become

extinct and end up as dead as the dodo? منقرض شده|||||منقرض شده|||منقرض شده ||||||||Dodo ||||||||dodo ||||||||dodo ptak

Ah, so of course you've heard of the dodo? |||||شنیده‌ای|||

Yes, dodos were large, metre-high birds which ||||||پرندگان بزرگ| |Dodos|||||| |dodos|||meter|||

died out in the 1600s after being hunted منقرض شد||||||| |||||||cacciato

to extinction by humans. |extinction event|| |l'estinzione|| k vyhubení člověkem.

That's right. Dodos couldn't fly and weren't

very clever. They didn't hide when sailors ||||||i marinai velmi chytré. Neschovávali se, když námořníci

with hunting dogs landed on their island. ||i cani|arrivati|||

The species was hunted so much that Tento druh byl loven v takové míře, že

within a century, every single bird had |||||uccello| během jednoho století každý pták

died out. zanikla.

But do you know which island the dodo |||||||dodo

was from, Sam? That's my quiz question

for today. Was it: para hoje|||

a) The Galapagos, b) Mauritius or c) Fiji? ||||Mauritius||| ||||Mauritius|||Fiji

I'll guess the Galapagos, Neil, because

I know many exotic animals live there. By |||esotici||||

the way, that's also cheered me up a bit ||||cheered|||| ||||ha incoraggiato|||| mimochodem, to mě také trochu rozveselilo.

because as humans we are much smarter

than the dodo! We're far too clever to die než dodo! Jsme příliš chytří na to, abychom zemřeli

out, aren't we?

I'm not sure I agree, Sam. Lots of the Nejsem si jistý, jestli s tím souhlasím, Same. Spousta

existential risks - the worst possible existenziali||||

things that could happen to humanity, co by se mohlo lidstvu stát,

such as nuclear war, global

pandemics or rogue artificial intelligence, ||abtrünnig|| ||uncontrolled or unpredictable|| ||rogue|| ||zbuntowany|| pandemie nebo umělá inteligence,

are human-made. These threats could ||||threats| jsou způsobeny lidmi. Tyto hrozby by mohly

have catastrophic consequences for mít katastrofální důsledky pro

human survival in the 21st century. přežití lidstva v 21. století.

That's true. But existential risks don't

only threaten the survival of the human |bedrohen||||| |minaccia||||| jen ohrožují přežití lidstva

species. Instead, they could destroy civilisation espécies||||| druhy. Místo toho by mohly zničit civilizaci

as we know it, leaving pockets of |||||pockets| jak ji známe, a zanechává kapsy

survivors to struggle on in a post-apocalyptic world. |||||||apokalyptischen| i sopravvissuti||||||after|apocalittica| přeživší bojují v postapokalyptickém světě.

And it wouldn't be the first time that has

happened, as the BBC World Service

programme The Inquiry found out. ||Untersuchung|| ||the inquiry|| program The Inquiry zjistil.

Simon Beard of the Centre for the Study Simon|Beard||||||

of Existential Risk at Cambridge

University explains:

The historical record suggests that about o||||| Historické záznamy naznačují, že asi

once every thousand years an event

occurs that wipes out about a third of the رخ می‌دهد||نابود می‌کند||||حدود یک سوم|| occurs||eliminates|||||| occurs||wipes out|||||| dojde k tomu, že se vymaže asi třetina

human population – so in the Middle

Ages, this was the Black Death - huge

plague that covered Eurasia, while there |||اوراسیا|| |||Eurasien|| |||Eurasia||

was also dramatic global cooling at that ||dramatic||cooling|| v té době také došlo k dramatickému globálnímu ochlazení.

time which many people think

was related to volcanic eruptions and |||آتشفشانی|فوران‌های آتشفشانی| |||volcaniche|eruzioni|

about a third of the global population died.

So, humanity has been facing these risks ||دارد||مواجه بوده است|| Lidstvo tedy čelí těmto rizikům

throughout history, according to the

historical record – the collection of all historický záznam - soubor všech

written and recorded past events zapsané a zaznamenané události z minulosti

concerning the human race. دربارهٔ نژاد بشر||| about||| týkající se lidské rasy.

Yes. Wars and plagues – infectious, |||بله. جنگ‌ها و بیماری‌ها|مسری |||Seuchen| |||peste|infettive

epidemic diseases which spread between همه‌گیر|||| epidemiche|||| epidemické nemoci, které se šíří mezi

countries can quickly wipe out – or |||erase|| |||eliminar||

completely destroy, millions of people. zcela zničit miliony lidí.

And there's not much we can do to stop A není toho moc, co bychom mohli udělat, abychom zastavili

disasters like that! فاجعه‌هایی مثل آن|| takové katastrofy!

True, Sam, but what about individuals To je pravda, Same, ale co jednotlivci

who actively work to bring about the end kteří aktivně pracují na ukončení

of the world - like apocalyptic terrorists, |||||Terroristen |||||i terroristi

rampage shooters and fundamentalist تیراندازان خشمگین|تیراندازان مهاجم|| Amoklauf|Schützen||Fundamentalisten rampage|i tiratori||fundamentalisti szaleństwo strzelania|||fundamentalista běsnící střelci a fundamentalisté

cults like those who organised the Kulte||||| i culti||||| kultů, jako jsou ti, kteří organizovali

poisonous gas attack on the Tokyo subway. ||||||حمله گاز سمی در مترو توکیو toxic|||||| ||||||metropolitana ||||||metro útok jedovatým plynem v tokijském metru.

Those are people who want to end human To jsou lidé, kteří chtějí ukončit lidskou

life on Earth and bring about Doomsday - ||||||روز قیامت ||||||Weltuntergang ||||||the end of the world ||||||Dzień Sądu život na Zemi a přivodit soudný den -

another word for the final, apocalyptic day další slovo pro poslední, apokalyptický den.

of the world's existence.

Right. And things got even scarier in |||||più spaventose| Vpravo. A věci se staly ještě děsivějšími

modern times with the invention of moderní doby s vynálezem

nuclear weapons. During the Cuban ||||cubana

Missile Crisis between America Raketenkrise||| missile||| pocisk rakietowy|||

and the USSR for example, risk experts ||Sowjetunion|||| ||Unione Sovietica|||| a SSSR, například odborníci na rizika

estimated a 41% probability that human odhaduje 41% pravděpodobnost, že člověk

life would be completely wiped out!

Seth Baum of New York's Global Seth Baum|Seth Baum|||New York| Seth|Baum|||di New York|

Catastrophic Risk Institute explains

how human error almost brought about Doomsday: jak lidská chyba málem způsobila soudný den:

There are some ways that you could get Existuje několik způsobů, jak získat

to a nuclear war without really intending to, ||||||to intend| k jaderné válce, aniž by to měl v úmyslu,

and probably the biggest example is if you

have a false alarm that is mistaken as a ||||||mistaken = mistaken|| falešný poplach, který je mylně považován za

nuclear attack, and there have been a jaderný útok, a tam byly

number of, maybe even very serious false řada, možná i velmi závažných falešných

alarms, over the years, in which one side poplachů v průběhu let, kdy jedna strana

or the other genuinely believed |||authentically| nebo druhý skutečně věřil.

that they were under nuclear attack, when

in fact they were not at all under nuclear ve skutečnosti vůbec nebyly pod jadernou

attack.

One such false alarm - an incorrect Jeden takový falešný poplach - nesprávný

warning given so that people wrongly avviso||||| varování, aby lidé nesprávně

believe something dangerous is about to

happen, came about in se stalo, přišel v

1995, when the US sent missiles up into ||||موشک‌ها|| ||||Raketen|| ||||missiles|| ||||i missili||

the Earth's atmosphere to study the

Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. شفق قطبی شمالی|شفق شمالی||| |Borealis||| |||settentrionali|

Soviet radars picked up the missiles, thinking رادارهای شوروی|||||| |Radaranlagen||||| sovieti|i radar||||| Sovětské radary zachytily rakety v domnění.

they were nuclear warheads and almost |||کلاهک‌های هسته‌ای|| |||Sprengköpfe|| |||testate nucleari|| |||głowice nuklearne||

retaliated. Nuclear Armageddon was only تلافی کرد||آرماگدون هسته‌ای|| vergalt (1)||Nukleares Armageddon|| ha retaliato||Armageddon|| zemścił||||

averted by the actions of one clear-thinking abgewendet||||||| prevented||||||| averted||||||| uniknięto||||||| odvráceno jednáním jednoho jasně smýšlejícího člověka.

Russian general who decided not to push Ruský generál, který se rozhodl netlačit na pilu

the red button. červené tlačítko.

Phew! A close shave then! Well, Neil, all اوه! جان سالم به در بردیم!|||خطر از بیخ گذشت|||| uff|||shave|||| Uff! Těsné oholení! No, Neile, všechno

this doomongering has made me want to |این بدبینی||||| |Katastrophenprophetie||||| |fearmongering||||| |alarmism||||| |katastrofizm||||| tohle osudové blouznění mě přimělo k tomu.

just give it all up and live on a desert island! |||||||||ilha deserta| vzdát se všeho a žít na pustém ostrově!

Like the dodo eh, Sam? So, which island ||dodo|não é||||

would that be? If you remember, today's

quiz question asked where the dodo was

from.

I said The Galapagos.

And I'm afraid to say it was b) Mauritius. ||||||||Maurício A obávám se, že to byl b) Mauricius.

So, to recap, in this programme we've

been discussing Doomsday – the final ||Weltuntergang|| ||o juízo final||

day of life on Earth and other existential den života na Zemi a další existenciální

threats - dangers threatening the survival threats|||| ||ameaçadoras|| hrozby - nebezpečí ohrožující přežití

of humans on the planet.

We looked back throughout the historical

record - all recorded human history, to see

examples of threats which have wiped příklady hrozeb, které zničily

out, or killed millions of people in the past,

including wars and plagues which spread

epidemic diseases between populations. epidemických onemocnění mezi populacemi.

And we've seen how modern dangers, like A viděli jsme, jak moderní nebezpečí, jako např.

nuclear war and climate change, further |||||mais adiante

reduce the probability of human survival.

But Sam, it's not all doom and gloom! The |||||نابودی||غم و اندوه| Ale Same, není to všechno jenom zlý a pochmurný! Na

same scientific intelligence which spilt ||||ریخت ||||verbreitete identical|||| ||||derramou stejnou vědeckou inteligenci, která se rozlévá

the atom could also find solutions to our |اتم||||راه‌حل‌ها|| |das Atom|||||| o||||||| atom by také mohl najít řešení pro naše

human-made problems in the 21st century, |||||no século| problémy způsobené člověkem v 21. století,

don't you think?

So, the end of the world might be a false Takže konec světa může být falešný.

alarm – or unfounded warning – after all! ||بی‌اساس||| ||unbegründet||| ||infundada||| ||nieuzasadnione|||

Let's hope we'll all still be here next

time for another edition of 6 Minute English. čas na další vydání 6minutové angličtiny.

Bye for now!

Bye.